Teepee Gift Wrapping

We love teepees and arrows and all Native American-ness as much as the next person so I thought “hmm it wouldn’t be too difficult to make my presents look like teepees. And that’d be delightful.” And it is. Don’t ya think?

If you’re thinking that this is much too involved for wrapping gifts, you are so dead wrong. Sure, it’s not as quick as some methods but if you’re anything like me you’ve probably tried a bunch of things you saw on Martha Stewart that took way longer than this will. Way longer. And then didn’t turn out like her pictures at all. Frowny face.

So you see, my teepee gifts are a must cus they’re really easy and they WILL turn out like the pictures. I can almost guarantee it. Yours will probably even be better than mine! It may look like there’s a lot of steps but once you do it, you’ll quickly get the hang of it! I have also decided that using a glue gun to wrap presents is a total win. Way prettier results. So let’s bust out some mini little paper teepees, mmk?

Materials
• Cardboard squares bigger than the gift you’re wrapping //
• Little wooden dowels or skewers with the pointy end cut off //
• Wrapping paper //
• Glue gun //
• Tape //
• Wrapping adornments: tags, ribbon, bows, etc //

1. Take your wooden squares and apply some hot glue to two diagonally facing corners. Stick two dowels in to the glue and tilt them toward each other, meeting in the middle.

2. Dab a little glue where the sticks meet (try to have this as close to center as you can).

3. Repeat steps 1-2 on the other corners with remaining dowels.

4. Roll out your wrapping paper and place your teepee skeleton on its side, pull the edge of the paper up to just above where all the sticks meet.

5. Apply a little glue to the bottom of the cardboard and stick it down to the paper.

6. Now lay the teepee on its opposite side and cut your paper at just about where the sticks meet.

7. Pull one long side up and glue it to the sticks. If you have words on your paper like mine does try to use the side that they’ll be right side up on because this side will be the best looking side of your teepee, the side you’ll probably want facing forward.

8. Bend this side of the paper around your teepee skeleton.

9. The paper I used here was just about the right size but when you’re using wider paper, you’re sides are going to come further forward so you’ll want to cut from the unclosed side in to the corner of your cardboard. If you don’t, it will be a lot harder to wrap.

10. Use a bit of tape to create a temporary closure of your flaps. Or, insert your gift now and use tape to hold it firmly down and then use tape to close your flaps.

11. Bend your teepee on to its side and mark where the top hits. If you’d like, you can trace the whole way down each side.

12. Cut this out so it forms a triangle.

13. Cut your other two sides into triangles so all excess paper is gone.

14. Here is where I’d insert my present. Sorry I didn’t get a pic of that! Use a small amount of tape or hot glue to adhere it to your cardboard so it doesn’t slide all around during transport.

15. Glue your long triangle up and use glue all down the sides wherever you may need it to make it look nice.

16. Fold your remaining flaps under your teepee and use glue or tape to stick down. Be careful to keep your gift in mind and not let it fall and break through your teepee!

Tada! A tiny {or maybe large!} paper teepee! Imagine the delight of your receiver. They’ll think this is the gift but then (inception!) there will be a real gift within it. Fun on fun.

Decorate your teepees with ribbon, bows and gift tags. Or use a marker to draw on them a little or put your receiver’s name on it. So many possibilities here for simple or complex decoration.

To open them, just have the giftee tear through it! or use scissors to poke or cut in to one of the sides.

I hope you decide that your gifts need to look like mini teepees too cus really this is just a win-win gift wrap solution. You will not regret it. Let me know if you try it! Happy wrapping!